Karate Case Study: The Front Snap Kick

It's a wonderful thing as a practitioner of traditional martial arts to see a classical technique come back into vogue and be used to great effect in full contact combative sports. John Smith reintroduced the low single leg take-down which appears in dozens of Eastern martial arts forms to the world of amateur wrestling, Jon Jones is bringing back the savate style push kick or "Chassee" to the knee, and between them Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva have brought the front snap kick back into vogue. Following their use of it so masterfully we have seen a proliferation of it's use in mixed martial arts particularly. Even one dimensional grappler Rousimar Palhares landed it out of nowhere, stunning Dan Miller in the UFC. Just the other night Dong Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim, known somewhat for having turned into a "decision fighter" since his move state side, managed to land a Lyoto Machida style jumping kick or "Tobi-Geri". The only thing that made Stun Gun's attempt less impressive was the fact that he had already attempted to land the crane kick over ten times before in the same fight.

The main difference between the front kick that Machida and Anderson threw and the Muay Thai style front kick which is much more common place in combat sports today is in the chambering of the leg. Notice how Machida and Anderson both bring their heel almost to their buttock and then use the bucking forward of their hips to throw the foot out, as opposed to the driving push kick or "teep" of traditional Muay Thai and kickboxing. That is not to say that teeps have not been used to score knockouts before. Witness the kick Kohiruimaki drives into the face of Nitta at 4:44 in this 2005 K-1 Max match. The key difference is that where the Mae-Geri Keage or Front Snap Kick whips up and under the opponent's chin like an uppercut, often cutting through the blind angle, the Muay Thai teep drives straight through the target. The teep is traditionally used to push an opponent back in hopes of him becoming more determined to push forward - walking into strikes as he does, or to push him into the ropes or corner. The snap kick is intended to cause a knockout or punish the body. Though the teep is used more routinely, it is also hard to find fighters who use the kick to it's full potential - Buakaw Por Pramuk being the most notable push kicker in common knowledge.

The front snap kick existed before Anderson and Lyoto (or Steven Seagal if you're feeling particularly gullible) stormed our living rooms with it in 2011, and had been used on the big stages of kickboxing and mma before, but never as effectively to the jaw. Semmy Schilt - the towering Dutch kickboxer - came to the 2009 K-1 Grand Prix with a front kick that he never before or since demonstrated. In three fights with three top kickboxers Schilt brutalised their bodies with snap kicks to the floating ribs and beat each fighter in under 3 minutes, making the total time he spent in the ring that night under ten minutes.  In this fight with Badr Hari - the consensus best in the world at the time of the tournament final, having already KO'd Schilt earlier that year, Semmy brutalises the mid-section of Hari which had never previously been thought to be a weakness. After avoiding Hari's initial charge Schilt connects his first good front kick at 3:08, falling into the clinch. He lands it against the ropes at 3:13 and again at 3:42. Though Hari does not appear wounded, his hands drop in an attempt to defend further uses of his foe's unfamiliar weapon - this allows Schilt to land a huge left straight (I would scarcely call it a jab) that drops Hari. Hari has been down before in fights, his chin being the biggest challenge his career has faced, but it is the wince of pain and the gasps that he is seen to give while sitting up after the knockdown that show the effect of Schilt's front kick. Schilt peppers Hari with jabs, delivers another front kick, some more jabs and then a high kick - Hari's usually high guard is absent though, further indicating the efficacy of Schilt's body work with the front kick. The final kick comes in shortly after - again a front kick to the floating rib, and Hari falls swinging, and writhes in agony once he hits the deck.

The best example of the front kick in MMA that I can offer is not Anderson or Lyoto, but a Japanese lightweight named Katsunori Kikuno. For those of you unfamiliar with Kikuno's work - he is a solidly entertaining fighter and has fought some top names. Suffering a robbery loss to JZ Calvan and outstriking Eddie Alvarez - the consensus best boxer and at the time best all around fighter at lightweight in the world - for almost 10 whole minutes, forcing Alvarez to take the fight to the ground, something he is rarely seen to do. Is Kikuno a great boxer or kickboxer? Hell no. Kikuno fights (or used to fight) from what fans referred to as "Zombie stance", with his hands open, palm facing the opponent in front of him. Kikuno's entire game was the front kick for the first part of his career - and it worked against top fighters. He winded kickboxing ace Andre Dida with one before throwing him to the floor and pounding him out. he brutalised Alvarez and kept him at range with it for the almost ten minutes in their match, and he used it almost exclusively to win his DEEP lightweight title. In recent fights he has abandoned his best weapon and fought almost exclusively with his hands down by his thighs, relying on his chin and punching power, but having seen him at his best it is clear he is wasting his talent in this way.  Though it's a losing effort, this is a brilliant example of how the front snap kick can throw even the best strikers off:

Kikuno throws and lands the front kick at 2:32, 2:35, 2:52, 3:16, 3:28, 3:47, 4:55, 5:00, 5:05, and 7:06. Eddie eventually catches Kikuno and changes strategy by wearing him down on the ground, but this is a career defining performance by Kikuno. Few have made Alvarez suffer so much for a win in recent years, and it was almost entirely Kikuno's front snap kick that did it. One more front kick to finish; 5:02 for the money shot.

Cross Counter 2: Gif Madness

After the massive success of my article on the cross counter fight fans began coming out of the woodwork on forums everywhere and showing me their favorite instances of the technique being employed. Here are a couple that I really enjoyed. As a reminder, the classical cross counter is an overhand thrown over the top of an opponent's jab and is regarded as the most effective counter punch in boxing, and not the straight right hand as is thought today.

Here is a superb application by K-1 Max and Shootboxing legend, Andy Souwer against Gago Drago. The cross counter punctuated a classic Souwer clinic in kickboxing, and while he is not known for his punching power, a perfectly timed counter-strike like this will end anyone's night.






Here is one of Overeem's against Ben Edwards from the original article. As you can see he lands beautifully as over Ben's attack and sends him sprawling to the mat like a sack filled with vegetable soup.










This gif of Machida's loss to Shogun shows largely the cost of tactical errors at the highest level of the game. In their 6 rounds of combat Machida and Shogun were pretty much at a stale mate as each one fired back a counter to the other man's counters. Machida landed a solid springing knee (case study of the Machida knee coming soon!) and got too confident in the pocket with a much better brawler. Following immediately with a left straight (from a southpaw stance) Machida was met with a cross counter from Shogun which caught his temple and took him out of the fight.




In this gif Jen's Pulver, in his young and terrifying days, lands a cross counter on John Lewis who is clearly timid and attempting to "establish the jab" against the undersized lightweight king. Pulver can likely see the tentativeness of his opponent as clearly as we do in this grainy gif, isn't bothered and simply socks him over the top. That's comfort that only experience can bring.








Here is BJ Penn throwing an interesting variation where he ducks the left hand of Sanchez (a vastly inferior striker who threw the same combination repeatedly at the exclusion of everything else against Penn) and comes up with the right hook - a truly difficult punch to land at the top level, and beautifully done by BJ. An article on the right hook will be coming at some point I assure you all!






A final cross counter, by the king of the cross counter (seriously, I could make an entire page of just his - and might) Joe Louis. Here the gigantic Primo "The Ambling Alp" Carnera has been circling to his left while bolt upright and jabbing all fight (take note Michael Bisping) and Louis clocks him over the top in the sixth round, heralding the beginning of the end for the big Italian.

High Kicking: How It's Done

High kicks are the Holy Grail of martial arts and landing them consistently secures superstar status for a kickboxer or mixed martial artist just as well as a knockout punch does in boxing. There is something uniquely impressive about watching a head kick master such as Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic send an opponent's head snapping sideways and their body crumpling to the ring canvas. As frightening in it's effects upon the recipient as it is an awe inspiring feat of flexibility and explosiveness meeting perfect timing; a perfect high kick in a major promotion will be viewed millions of times on Youtube and propel the kicker into title contention in at least the fans' minds.

No man has done more for the publicity of the high roundhouse kick than Mirko Cro Cop; his head kick wins over Igor Vovchancyn, Wanderlei Silva and Aleksander Emelianenko fill highlight reels all over the internet. Cro Cop's head kick is interesting because, unlike the later entries on this list, he never off balances his opponent with a push to bring their hands down (the Peter Aerts method), he simply kicks them in the head from outfighting range. Cro Cop, a southpaw, lacked the slick combinations of other strikers and would have been a simple one trick pony if he had not developed two other techniques to prime form; his left straight punch and his left body kick. Through the use of his straight left punch - which was strong enough to fracture Bob Sapp, Josh Barnett and Kazushi Sakuraba's orbital bones (the latter two from his knees on the ground) - Cro Cop was able to make his opponents forget their strict right hand position - which every opponent held rigidly in defence of the side of their head at the start of their meeting with him. Through his left body kick Cro Cop was able to mop up against the disciplined opponents who kept their hand up at all costs.

Watching this extremely short fight against world class striker and MMA fighter Igor Vovchancyn, it is clear how disconcerting just a couple of Cro Cop's left straights are. Igor comes out of his corner looking disciplined, with his right hand up high and away from his head to soften Mirko's kicks, but just a minute later he is bringing it in after being stung by Mirko's straight. Mirko doesn't even need the hand completely out of the way, as he is content to kick through the less sturdy guard Igor presents.




Here, in Japan's premier kickboxing promotion, K1, Mirko fights New Zealand's Mark Hunt. A former Grand Prix champion who got by on his huge punch and having arguably the best chin in combat sports history, Hunt was able to take the full force of Mirko's kick and get up, but Mirko's set up was picture perfect and the clip has made an appearance in dozens of highlight reels. Hunt's defense has improved somewhat when he meets Mirko and it gives the Croat trouble throughout the fight, but Hunt's attempts to utilize better head movement to evade punches backfire when Cro Cop catches him getting into a pattern. Notice at 5:43 as Cro Cop fakes to attack with the straight, Hunt goes to fire back but pulls short when he realizes that Cro Cop is in position to defend. Mirko immediately fakes again and Hunt leans to his right to slip the straight left. Mirko's left straight and left high kick require the same step with the lead foot outside of the opponent's lead foot, meaning that by conditioning an opponent to expect a straight punch when Cro Cop steps, he can instead throw a high kick without his opponent seeing the foot being placed in position as a telegraphing of the technique. In the most effective cases he can convince the opponent to duck into the kick, just as Hunt does.

Marlon Sandro fell foul of the same mistake in Bellator FC. Sandro is a world class featherweight with phenomenal power, but lacks the technical finesse of the featherweight division's other strikers. Here he makes the mistake against the seemingly overmatched Pat Curran of believing that his defense is as world class as his offense - his overactive head movement and wild sways down to almost hip height get him caught by a high kick with plenty of follow through on it.

Here Mirko picks up another easy knockout from an opponent so concerned with parrying his punches, while simultaneously so inexperienced in doing so, that Mirko can simply kick around his opponent's outstretched arms. Notice in the slow motion replay at the end of this very short clip how Cro Cop doesn't even throw the left straight but instead reaches inside of his opponent's right hand and turns his hand outward, cupping Nagata's wrist until he knows it won't get back in time to stop the kick. A nice little trick from the high kick master which is worth investing the time to learn.

Much of Cro Cop's success with the high kick however can also be attributed to his impeccable flexibility and athleticism. Indeed, as Mirko aged the knockouts began to disappear, and head kicks were almost always blocked by opponents he would have finished in minutes during his prime. Cro Cop's hip flexibility was always stunning, and Bas Rutten observed that it was this flexibility which made it difficult for opponents to discern whether his kick was coming in at leg height, rib height or head height. Peter Aerts is a phenomenal head kicker who has never been known for his flexibility, and he accomplishes his kicks largely (though not exclusively) through the use of off balancing techniques. Watch at 2:06 of this classic K-1 match as Aerts pushes his opponent away from him hard, causing his opponent to drop his hands instinctively to keep his balance. While it would be hard to punch a man that you have just pushed away, a kick is much longer and does not require you to draw back your hands, so it is possible to begin the kick almost simultaneously with the push.

To finish, I'll offer another nice application of the push away head kick seen in the Aerts match above. Here Bantamweight striking master Mamoru 'The Fro' Yamaguchi slows down the fast starting American, Stonnie Dennis in the clinch, before achieving a double handed neck clinch, pushing him onto the ropes and knocking him unconscious with a beautiful high kick. As you can see at 1:42, when Yamaguchi pushes him away Stonnie's hands are in no position to defend himself as he is correcting his balance, making the kick as simple as aiming at his temple.

The Lever Punch or Doubling Up

Doubling up is the act of throwing two successive blows with the same hand, and can be extended into tripling up, quadrupling up or to any number imaginable - limited only by speed, ambition and arm cramp. The term Lever Punch or Crowbar punch was coined by Soviet Boxing Team Head Coach K. V. Gradapolov in his "Tactics of the Foreign Masters" to describe the legendary black pugilist Peter Jackson's seemingly unique tactic of throwing a hard left hook and without drawing his shoulders back completely throwing another one immediately afterward. This action served to break the opponents guard and concentration as after a hard left hook a hard right punch is almost always expected. The second punch did not matter much to Jackson who simply used it to "lever" open some space in which to fire his powerful right hand, but in recent years it has been possible for the second or third successive punch off of one hand to be used as a damaging blow. A brilliant example of "doubling up" or "lever punches" is Manny Pacquiao's fight with David Diaz:

Manny Pacquiao throughout his career had experienced the advantage of being a southpaw - awkward and unseen by most fighters with savvy managers. Against Diaz he fought another southpaw - effectively neutralizing Pacquiao's ability to lead with his left hand. As a southpaw against an orthodox fighter it becomes a contest of power punches seemingly as both sides find it much easier to land a straight with their rear hand (usually their power hand) than with their jab. Jabbing in a contest involving a southpaw and an orthodox fighter is usually largely ineffective unless one participant fights with their lead hand and shoulder down as Diego Sanchez made the mistake of doing against Martin Kampmann a few months back. In this fight Manny had to prove he could fight with his lead hand, and he did it VERY convincingly. At 0:25 Pacquiao uses a slapping lead hook to jump to the side of Diaz, following it with a short uppercut off of the same hand, bringing Diaz's head up for a hook off of his rear, left hand. Manny lands a lead uppercut to the body followed immediately by a lead uppercut to the head at 0:38. By not bringing his hand back to his guard in between Manny is able to bring the punch through Diaz's blind angle, the point down by his feet that he cannot see through his peripheral vision, and so the punch lands with surprise and good effect. Emmanuel Steward - a far wiser man than most in combat sports - breaks down the combination in slow motion at 1:00 noting it's rarity even in modern boxing. Pacquiao again doubles up later in the fight, this time using a jab to lead uppercut combination that lands flush at 1:43 of the video.


Another beautiful example of doubling up from the boxing world is Mike Tyson's famous combination of the jab, rear hook to the body and rear uppercut. He used this to effectively finish tough British heavyweight and all around nice guy, Frank Bruno. At 9:37 Mike has had Bruno reeling but has failed to finish by swarming on him, so he takes a step back and reconsiders his strategy. Pushing Bruno against the ropes he sinks the right hook to the body and immediately follows up with the right uppercut. Again as the punch had started down by Bruno's trunks, Tyson's uppercut was not telegraphed in the usual way by his glove leaving his own chin and dropping below his shoulders.




The professional kickboxer and K-1 superstar Gokhan Saki has some of the fastest hands in his division, also being one of the smallest men in it. Gokhan Saki throws some of the most inventive combinations of any fighter in the world, let alone at heavyweight. In his fight with "Flashy" Freddy Kamayo, he completely outshone his opponent and upstaged Kamayo's moniker by throwing heavyweight power in lightweight combinations. At 0:55 he throws a jab, cross, left hook to the head and a left hook to the body, following it with a hard low kick, and Freddy's night only gets worse from there. After stunning Kamayo with a solid counter hook, Saki follows him to the ropes and immediately begins using smoke and mirrors to baffle his opponent rather than swinging wildly for the finish. At 2:03 Saki quadruples up by throwing a left hook to the body, a left uppercut (through the blind angle) and a double left hook to the head in rapid succession. At 2:31 Saki tops off his performance by tripling up with his left hand, throwing a right hand, tripling up the left hand again, then rolling his left hand over his opponent's head, using it to rip down Kamayo's left glove and land a right hand that sends Freddy sprawling across the canvas. Kamayo is game and makes it to his feet but the damage is done and a stoppage follows seconds later.

Mention is needed for how this underused tool appears in MMA. It is rare that you see it used but when it is, it almost always scores and I believe that fighters will pick up on this soon. The Diaz brothers, Nate and Nick are exceptional at throwing multiple punches off of one hand in quick succession. Nick's hands are so hyperactive throughout the fight (though in a strangely slow rhythm) that I won't even attempt to pin point all of the double ups he performs but I'll observe a few just to illustrate the point. At 4:00, 4:15, 6:48, 9:51 and 9:53 and 9:54 Diaz throws two punches off of the same hand in rapid succession. There are numerous other examples of doubling up in this half of the fight alone, but good luck counting. Diaz's work rate is incomparable and on most of the occasions he doubles up a punch one of the two lands, and by the 9:50 mark both are landing.

A few honourable mentions: Takanori Gomi was a fierce MMA puncher in his prime and doubled up to great extent against the (on paper at least) much better striker Jens Pulver - using a lead hook to the body to bend Pulver towards the following lead hook to the head. Fedor Emelianenko also used a beautiful combination against Mirko Cro Cop that consisted of a right straight to the southpaws sternum, a left uppercut to meet him as he bent forward and a left hook to loop around Cro Cop's guard as he attempted to defend himself.

Finally no article on doubling up would be complete without a mention of Roy Jones Jr., I am not even going to attempt to offer individual times for this video as I believe anyone who hasn't seen it should watch the entire three minutes; it's pretty inspiring. If you're really pushed for time just forward to the end, but you'll be missing some of the best left hook work in boxing history.

Punch and Clutch

'Punch and Clutch' is a term you hear from veteran commentators and coaches from time to time and is a rather old school strategy of punishing an opponent without giving him the chance to counter with combinations or outpoint you. While many times you will hear the term used in a derogatory way; criticizing a fighter who is clearly trying to stall, properly executed punch and clutch makes for exciting, brutal fights. Punch and Clutch is a method wherein a power punch can be thrown without fear of retaliation. Normally a looping right lead or a powerful left hook is thrown and the clinch is established immediately after.  Floyd Mayweather is not a big puncher, but can cause damage by jumping into his shots and clinching. Take a look at this short highlight of his right hand leads against the southpaw Sharmba Mitchell. At 0:09 he lands a huge right hand and immediately moves to clinch, smothering Mitchell's counter. At 0:15 he does the same again, this time dropping Mitchell, but he is clearly already moving in for the clinch, watching the slow motion replay one can clearly see him react and change stances to punch again.

This is not something he does only against southpaws either (he's fought so few of them). Watch his performance against Hatton, a much harder puncher and an expert infighter, whom he managed to land power shots on and tie up with ease in the middle and later rounds of their contest. Watch at 1:29 where he throws the right hand, leaping in to clinch with Hatton, then when Hatton attempts to hold him, Floyd cross faces him and lands some free shots on the way out.

The first time I recall hearing the term was in reference to Roberto Duran's strategy. During Duran's lightweight career he was known as a ferocious power puncher (hence his nickname Manos de Piedra or 'Hands of Stone') and he managed to carry this punching power up in weight to extent.  While an extremely able boxer with world class defense, Duran's management decided while he was young to sell his punching power above all else and asked him to assure his popularity by scoring knockouts rather than clinical decision victories. To achieve this without sacrificing his facial features or mental faculties Duran made sure that when he threw his enormous right hand he clinched up immediately after. Should his opponent cover up he began berating them with hooks and uppercuts, if they clinched back he freed one hand and began uppercutting them anyway. Two more spectacular Punch and Clutchers are Naseem Hamed and Roy Jones - both of whom got remarkable power on their shots even in the lower weightclasses, primarily by commiting their whole body weight to them and either ducking or clinching immediately after.

Punch and Clutch is especially useful in Muay Thai, kickboxing and MMA due to the fact that a fighter needs neither hand free to strike and in the latter can throw his opponent to the floor. Here is a clip of Ernesto Hoost, pushing 40 years old, beating his third world class opponent in one night at the K-1 Grand Prix. In the first minute and a half it becomes obvious to Hoost his opponent is much stronger than him and is constantly applying pressure - Hoost attempts one of his trade mark low kicks and is pushed off balance into the ropes at 0:40. At 1:17 he attempts to punch and clutch but Le Banner muscles him off. The same happens at 2:22 and at 2:28. But on both of those occasions Le Banner is so concerned about keeping Hoost from clinching him so that he can get a punch off, that Hoost actually lands all his attempted right hand leads. He does again at 2:55 and 2:57 and each time Le Banner is caught because he is attempting to keep Hoost from clinching him. By the second round Hoost is tying him up more often - even landing knees as at 4:48. From the 6:00 mark Hoost is landing his right hand and clinching up immediately after at will, and Le Banner is clearly tiring from being hit and attempting to muscle the older man off of him. Le Banner's slowing movement allows Hoost the space to move back and use his kicks, such as at 6:42. Hoost is eventually given a yellow card for clinching - but his gameplan has already succeeded in exhausting the enormous Frenchman. Le Banner cannot pressure his opponent in the third for lack of energy and fear of Hoost's Punch and Clutch - at which point Hoost backs him onto the ropes for the first time with a salvo of punches. Hoost's right kick breaks Le Banner's arm and the fight is stopped - making Ernesto Hoost the oldest man to ever win the K-1 Grand Prix by tiring out a younger, stronger opponent. All through use of Punch and Clutch.


Finally an example from the world of Mixed Martial Arts. There are few who combine clinchwork and boxing so well as Fedor Emelianenko did in his prime and so I will illustrate using him. Fedor's third meeting with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is a clinic in Punch and Clutch. Using his fearsome right hand lead the Russian repeatedly forces Nogueira to 1) raise his hands and expose his waste or 2) take a huge punch and not be aware of Fedor taking him down. Take a look at this handy highlight Cyrax1984 has put together:

At 0:05 and 0:12 Emelianenko uses his right hand lead to upper body clinch to throw combination. And again at 0:27, and with a different throw at 0:31. At 0:20 he instead uses a strong jab but immediately steps in and puts his head on Nogueira's chest. It makes a great difference from the jab to double leg shot that seems to still be the only set up used by anyone outside of Georges St. Pierre today.


A final brilliant example is from Fedor's fight with Gary Goodridge. I advise anyone who hasn't seen this to watch the fight first in fast motion, be amazed, then watch the slow motion and see what Fedor does. Goodridge is well prepared for Fedor to take him down as he has done to Semmy Schilt, Heath Herring and Nogueira. At 3:50 the slow motion picks up with Fedor landing his left hook, but having jumped in far enough to be able to clinch - as Goodridges arms extend to initiate the clinch Fedor pushes Goodridge off of him, offbalancing Goodridge, causing his hands to drop and allowing Fedor to land a second, harder hook at 3:52. In using Punch and Clutch it is up to the fighter to use his judgement just as Mayweather did when he realised Mitchell was hurt or that Hatton wanted to hold him. If Emelianenko hadn't felt the first hook land cleanly, I suspect in all likelihood that he would have continued into a full clinch and secured a takedown, but instead he chose to land more blows upon realizing he had struck Goodridge cleanly.